China’s COVID-19 cases have become “impossible” to track, the country’s top health body said yesterday, with officials warning that cases are rising rapidly in Beijing after the Chinese government abruptly abandoned its “zero COVID-19” policy.
Beijing’s move to scrap mass testing and quarantines after nearly three years of attempting to stamp out the virus has led to a drop in officially reported infections, which last month hit an all-time high.
However, those numbers no longer reflect reality because testing is no longer required for much of the country, the Chinese National Health Commission said in a statement.
Photo: Bloomberg
“Many asymptomatic people are no longer participating in nucleic acid testing, so it is impossible to accurately grasp the actual number of asymptomatic infected people,” the commission said.
The statement came after Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan (孫春蘭) said new infections in the capital were “rapidly growing.”
Chinese leaders are determined to press ahead even though the country is facing a surge in cases that experts fear it is ill-equipped to manage. Millions of vulnerable older people are still not fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and underfunded hospitals lack the resources to deal with an influx of infected patients.
Photo: REUTERS
Authorities said they would begin allowing vulnerable people, including those aged 60 or older, to receive a second COVID-19 vaccine booster six months after their first.
A line of about 50 people stretched out the door of a fever clinic in Beijing yesterday, with multiple residents saying they were infected with COVID-19.
“Basically, if we are lining up here, we are all infected. We would not come here if we weren’t,” one person waiting in line said. “I’m here with a senior member of my family, he’s had a fever for nearly 10 days in a row now, so we are coming to do a checkup on him.”
Restaurants, shops and parks are allowed to reopen, but residents are not finding the path to living with the virus straightforward.
Many symptomatic cases have opted to self-medicate at home, while others are staying in to protect themselves from getting infected.
Businesses are also struggling as COVID-19 rips through the population and hits their staffing. As a result, the capital’s streets are largely empty.
“Basically I follow the requirements of the Beijing government, that the elderly should stay home and go out as little as possible,” said one resident in his 80s who declined to give his name.
He said he was not too worried because he thought that the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 was mild, but added that “there shouldn’t be complete relaxation and freedom.”
“If we are dead, how can we be free, right?” he said.
People have complained of sold-out cold medicines and long lines at pharmacies, while Baidu Inc (百度) said that Internet searches for fever-reducing ibuprofen had risen 430 percent over the past week.
Soaring demand for at-home COVID-19 tests and medications has created a black market with astronomical prices, while buyers resort to sourcing the goods from “dealers” whose contacts are being passed around WeChat groups.
Authorities are cracking down, with market regulators hitting one business in Beijing with a 300,000 yuan (US$43,166) fine for selling overpriced test kits, the Beijing News reported on Tuesday.
In a sea change for a country where COVID-19 infection was once taboo and recovered patients faced discrimination, people are now taking to social media to show off their test results and give detailed descriptions of their experiences while infected.
A Beijing resident in his 50s said: “I think everyone has got used to it. They have moved on... I don’t think people are that fragile.”
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. A spokesperson for Indonesia disaster mitigation agency said there were no reports of damage so far. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province, said their evacuation was underway in coastal villages and there were no reported casualties so far. DZBB radio, broadcasting from the
RESILIENCE: Taiwan plays a key role in semiconductors, energy, information infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, AIT Director Raymond Greene said Taiwan’s continued investment in deterrence and resilience remains vital, especially in uncrewed systems and other emerging technologies, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday. Greene made the remarks at the annual National Strategic Summit on Supply Chain Resilience held by the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), a government-backed think tank. As Taiwan last year became the US’ fourth-largest trading partner and supply chain security is becoming more important, cooperation in emerging technologies continues to deepen between the two countries, he said. The US is committed to accelerating innovation, building key infrastructure, strengthening cooperation
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
RSS